Category Archives: Soups

This instant pot split pea and ham soup makes meal planning a breeze. It’s dairy free and gluten free. Although split peas are technically legumes, they are just a dried version of fresh peas, which I love and have used in recipes before. Check out my Vegan Pea Pesto. I’ve stopped being strict about rules, and just try to stick to what feels good. For me, that is dairy free and low carb. I’ll occasionally have carbs and beans, but meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables, are still what I prefer to have the majority of the time.

I’ve been using the Instant Pot a ton to help with meal planning. I’ve always loved using it for hard boiled eggs, but I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with bone both, meat, stews, and rice. So far, my husband and I love it. At first, releasing the pressure was a little scary, but I wear an oven mitt, when I do to be extra careful, and I haven’t had any issues. I used to love my slow cooker, and it’s been collecting dust in my kitchen since I got this in the mail. So here is another recipe for all my instant pot fanatics (I include myself in that category).

Even though it’s 100 degrees here in LA, I still wanted to cook some fall food. I love pureed vegetable soups. They are full of healthy vegetables, paleo friendly, and make a great comfort food. I made this soup really thick and creamy (without the cream), but you can easily thin it out with some chicken or vegetable broth. I did after dinner to give myself a bit more leftovers. This soup does have a bit of a kick, mostly from the little bit of fresh ginger, I grated into the soup. I only used a 1/4 of tsp, but you could always reduce or omit that ingredient.

There are many different curry powders you could use, but I like Mandras Curry Powder, which is what you would use for a mild yellow Indian curry. I got the brand Koshys from my local Indian grocery store. But this mandras curry powder from Rani (on amazon) would work great. You can easily make your own, but it’s nice to have one hand for convenience.

Add two acorn squashes (whole), three carrots with ends cut off, one large sweet white onion cut in half, and half a cup of water to slow cooker to steam.

Set slow cooker on high for 2.5 hours.

Then when acorn squash seems soft to touch, be careful it will be hot in slow cooker and can burn your hand, use a fork or wooden spoon to see if it has softened. Then add carrots, onion, and 1 can of coconut milk (optional: set aside a little bit of the coconut milk for garnishing soup at the end) to the blender.

Then half the squashes, and scoop out seeds inside. Scoop out squash flesh, but not skin, and add to blender. Blend in batches to prevent a mess.

Once all the vegetables have been blended with the coconut milk, add them to a large pot.

This chicken and avocado soup is a really easy variation of my normal paleo friendly chicken soup. It was actually my husband’s idea, and it looked so pretty and delicious I decided to post it for you guys. I had some leftover chicken soup in the fridge, which made it really simple to throw in some avocado, cilantro, and lime juice and have an instant dinner. It literally took me five minutes total. Shout out to all my meal preppers! This recipe is for you.

This chicken and zoodle soup is made with homemade chicken bone broth. I normally make this dish without the zoodles, but there was extra zucchini in the fridge and I didn’t want it to go bad. The broth is the real star in the this dish, I roasted a whole grass fed chicken, that wasn’t pretty enough to make it to the blog, and threw the carcass in the slow cooker for two rounds of bone broth. Then, I stored the broth in the freezer, until Shameer and I wanted an easy meal for the week. I’m trying to do more recipes and prep work in the kitchen, that I easily store in the freezer and/or fridge, to make cooking during the week easier.

This carrot cumin soup recipe from the Eat Right For Your Sight Cookbook was a delicious and easy one pot meal. I’m a huge fan of blended vegetable soups. They fill you up, and if you watch your weight, are usually little to no calories. I made this soup vegan and left out the Greek yogurt, but the original recipe whisks in 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt at the end. I also used fresh cilantro instead of cumin seeds as a garnish. I’m not the biggest fan of seeds or nuts in my soup, and I like a pop of color, so I usually use some fresh herbs and freshly ground black pepper as my garnish. What’s nice about this recipe is the flexibility. Add or leave out whatever ingredients you like. You should keep the carrots though, especially if you are worried about Macular Degeneration. Carrots contain a ton of Vitamin A, beta-carotene, and minerals.

Each recipe in the cookbook comes with a little bit of information and the nutritional profile of the dish. Not only will you want to make the recipes because they look delicious, but also because of the healthy nutrients each dish contains. To learn more about Macular Degeneration check out the website for the American Macular Degeneration Foundation. There is also a healthy vision blog party to celebrate the release of this cookbook tomorrow, May 14th.

For more details, such as where to get this amazing cookbook, check out this link.

I jazzed up Nonni’s cauliflower soup with some bacon and chives as a garnish, but don’t be fooled, this soup is really easy. It’s basically just steamed cauliflower that’s been blended, which surprisingly tastes fantastic with just a little bit of fresh ground black pepper. If you don’t have time to make some bacon, or chop chives, all you need is some black pepper and you have a delicious and healthy meal that’s got no calories. You can steam and blend it in bone broth if you have some, for some extra nutrition, but I just used water. It tastes good either way and cauliflower only taste 20 minutes to steam, which means this meal can be done in under 30 minutes. If you’re entertaining, add the bacon and chives, it will make it look extra pretty for your guests.